


Left Behind

by Draikinator



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-28
Updated: 2014-10-28
Packaged: 2018-02-23 00:17:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2526962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draikinator/pseuds/Draikinator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soundwave is running low on power and he can't keep his processor focused as the inevitable end creeps closer. Tfpverse, post predacons rising, sad sorta one sided soundwave/megs</p>
            </blockquote>





	Left Behind

It's near silent in the lab, when it's empty.  
  
The autobots visit occasionally, chattering inanely about things that don't matter and fiddling with controls and databanks that don't belong to them.  
  
Soundwave hates them.  
  
He drifts in an out of consciousness, conserving energy. His fuel tanks are running low, very low, and even after siphoning was left in lazerbeak, rest her spark, he didn't have a lot of time left. Nothing had worked.  
  
Imagine the surprise in his spark, warm and cold at the same time, tingling in his chest when he had felt Lord Megatron's life signal come back online- after the soul shattering, cold fracture he had felt when it had gone dark. The last time a life signal had come back online Cylas had happened, and Soundwave tried not to hope, but in such a hopeless situation, it was difficult not to.  
  
He drifted off, somewhere far away, but not far enough- Cybertron, long before the war and Earth and long before Megatron had gone mad with grief and power. The Pits of Kaon, dirty pig metal floors and ramshackle arena seating- high rise walls made of tin and chrome and steel all welded haphazardly together to form the ring. The way his sword clattered to the floor as soon as the buzzer sounded to start- the glint of Megatronus' sword reflecting off the ground and the way his arms moved. The memories moved, vague and wet, like a tumbling river, incongruently together- the timeline was off. He wasn't remembering in order.  
  
Surely he ripped Megatronus' left arm off, up to the elbow, before his sword lodged itself in his chest? Perhaps not. Did he keep fighting? It was all a dark, hazy blur of glittering blue energon and dark grey pig metal and rainbow coloured stands, the roar of the crowd and the smell of burnt cabling, the feel of warm energon under his slim finger tips, slick and wet, making him unable to get enough grip on the surface to stumble back to his pedes.  
  
He snapped back to reality when a low energon warning crackled to life against his HUD. He killed it quickly; he knew.  
  
No, he definitely knew he was low on energon. And it was to late now. He didn't have the energy left to do anything but die, and obviously the Autobots had no intention of showing him any mercy; not that he would want it.  
  
He drifted off again. The dim black databanks of the Nemisis' bridge slowly morphed into figures, standing at attention, the ribbed spires supporting the ceiling warped into flagpoles, the Decepticon brand waving high in the smokey skies. Megatron stood at their center, at their helm, where he belonged, addressing the crowd with the ferocity and conviction that had first stirred something long forgotten in his spark. Every time he looked at him he felt warm- like the energon in his lines was more efficient in his presence. He hadn't even realized he could enjoy another mech's presence so much. Megatron nodded at him during a comment on loyalty and he felt himself straighten up, flattered. Something happened- the scene shifted, the mechs at attention marched away and the flags all fell and the smoke and fire cleared and they were alone- alone in Megatron's private quarters.  
  
He stood quietly, straight, at attention when Megatron slammed a fist through his personal databank. He was not concerned. He had made backup copies of the important information. He didn't move when Megatron started tearing out cables and wiring in a rage filled frenzy, shattering the glass screen and rending the steel into chunks as he screamed his fury at Orion's betrayal. What they had been doing was certainly no secret- the gladiator and the clerk were the subject of a dozen rumours and he had made a habit of monitoring the gossip, as well as the clerk- for his Lord's safety, of course.  
  
Always for him.  
  
He didn't move even when Lord Megatron grabbed him. Did not struggle when his upper right arm crumbled under his massive talons, did not flinch when his Lord's face drew up to his neck cabling, fierce and angry and dominating. He was like one of Earth's hurricanes- a vicious unstoppable force That destroyed everything in his wake- but behind him, new life, better than the last would grow, and he shuddered under his touch, arms raising hesitantly to meet him.  
  
He shook himself out of the thoughts quickly. Energon levels were far too critical to drift of there.  
  
The room was silent but for the low chugging of his quiet engine and the gentle hum of energon slugging through his lines, slow and exhausted and old. He'd shut down the connections to his limbs, but the conservation hadn't bought him much time, and he still had nothing to do with the time he'd bought.  
  
A worthless purchase.  
  
He wished Megatron were here. He wished Megatron had let the Prime escape to Earth and focused on conquering other planets. Planets that mattered. He almost wished he'd left his Lord's side when it became obvious he's gone mad- that the well spoken, charismatic miner who had risen up into the world from pain and the pits and had brought revolution with his words alone was dead and gone forever, only this delusional shell of a mech who wanted revenge on his spurned lover and power that had been long denied him through any blasphemous means necessary was all that was left.  
  
But he didn't.  
  
Soundwave felt he should regret staying- especially seeing his current situation, but he didn't. Couldn't. Each moment had been precious- from miners to gods on this tiny planet. For centuries it had felt like he had everything. Megatron, the Decepticons, power- and then, somehow, everything spiraled out of his spindly grasp, and he'd allowed himself to be disabled by children- children of a species that didn't even usually make it a full century.  
  
He'd let insects kill him, and he hadn't been there when Megatron had died. He'd scrabbled at the walls, screaming, trying to break through the metal, claw his way out and protect him, but he couldn't. He was trapped. The world was empty and dark and grey and he was alone and he could not even leave the room. He could do nothing but cry his rage and hate and anguish when he could no longer sense the familiar cadence of Megatron's pulsing spark. He tore at the walls and shredded databanks and screamed and screamed and screamed in his real voice, but he was alone. In more ways than one.  
  
He fiddled with his fuel controls again and shut down the last of his emergency protocols. Even if he needed them they wouldn't be of any use, at this point. He had a few minutes before he'd need to purge all his data- though it was a bit of a moot point, seeing as he was in an alternate dimension and the war was over, and he wasn't looking forward to the idea, but he was a good soldier, and he refused to let his death tarnish his undying loyalty to the cause and it's glorious leader.  
  
There was a green glow from the opposite side of the room- in the spacebridge. He'd torn it to shreds, but he could still see it- the dim reflection of the 'real' spacebridge back in the 'real' world.  
  
The green swirled fiercly, and he turned his audials up, listening to the heavy footfalls that even near death could not make him forget.  
  
Megatron.  
  
He would have struggled to his pedes, to attention, if he could, but his limbs were all shut down and his senses were barely functioning as it was. He couldn't even play back an audiobyte to welcome him.  
  
Megatron stepped through the portal and onto the platform, looking around before his optics found Soundwave, battered and exhausted and dying in a heap against the far wall, and he moved towards him quickly, without losing the dignified air befitting of a Lord.  
  
"Soundwave!" He said, leaning down to kneel over him.  
  
He came back. He came back.  
  
"I need my third in command. I need you. The war is back on, and we- I cannot win without you."  
  
He would have raised his hands to the smooth gray metal of Megatron's helm if he could, brushed the rust from his faceplate, dug his fingers into the smooth seams of his arms, anything, but his systems met with a flurry of errors as he tried to boot his arms back up. There just wasn't enough power left.  
  
His optics flickered, pathetically, with the effort.  
  
But he'd come back. He'd come back, and he needed him.  
  
"It will be okay. We're going back to the real world, and we'll destroy the Autobots, together," Megatron said and tipped his visor forward, pressing his lip plates against the screen in a cool kiss- something they'd never done. There had been unspoken rules- an agreement, and this had never been part of it. His spark thrummed, relieved and happy and so glad- aching for home, and Megatron was home.  
  
He offlined his optics and raised his arms around Megatron's neck, touching the familiar spikes and curves of his shoulder armour, the transformation seams beneath his arms, the strangely delicate cabling beneath his chest, and kissed him back with a faceplate he's forgot he'dhad. The world spun, dark and forgotten, and he succumbed to it, let it take him, warm and green and cyan and black.  
  
Megatron had come back for him.  
  


* * *

  
The room was silent now, totally so, the gentle thrum of the mech's engine gone, the last quiet clicks of his processor chugging to stay online all but forgotten. He lay in a quiet heap on the far wall, a battered black and purple shell, alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for lilo15 on tumblr because i am a monster. :)
> 
> Also in case it wasn't obvious enough, he was hallucinating pretty bad toward the end. Megatron didn't come.


End file.
